Rebirth, Ruth Nelson Tinsley

The Human Rights Activist, Blanche Edwards

I use vintage pictures because these images from the past come with a sense of history. They illustrate that the present struggles are a continuation of the past conflicts.

I use my work to figure out what it means to be a Latin woman in America today.

I couple photographs with art abstractions to create hybrid works that require collaboration with other disciplines.

The photographs I use were never intended to be seen as art, they were initially shot for purposes of surveillance or domination.

According to historical archives, in the 1960s and 1970s a main focus of the NYPD was to spy on civil rights groups. The recent increase in protesters reminds me of those struggles.

I ignore the boundaries between then and now, art and document, figuration and abstraction.

My digital edition prints are then finished with applications of embroidery.

America, Patricia Stephens Due

Mixed media (vintage photograph, embroidery)

2017

The Civil Rights Activist (Dora Thewlis)

Mixed media (vintage photograph, embroidery)

Steering Into The Sun

Coronation of an Activist

The Women's March

Mixed media (vintage photograph, embroidery)

The Executive Meeting

The Women's Rights Activist (1910-2017)

Mixed media (vintage photograph, embroidery)

The Segregationist

Mixed media (vintage photograph, embroidery)

There's No Planet B

Altar for the Sad Death of a Selfie Addict (Rosita)

Unknown Glory

Mighty Seed

The Great Promise

Noble Fruit

Magnificent Passenger

Legendary Roommate

Universal Secret

Summer Crossing

Mixed media (photograph, acrylic paint, recycled paper)

Dimensions 10 inch x 8 inch.

2017

The Bridge

Mixed media ( photograph, embroidery)

2017

Crossroads

Mixed media (photograph, embroidery)

2017

Border Hybrid

Mixed media (photograph, acrylic paint, recycled paper)

Dimensions 10 inch x 8 inch.

2017

Between Here and There

Mixed media (photograph, acrylic paint, recycled paper)

Dimensions 10 inch x 8 inch.

2017

Border Meeting

Mixed media (photograph, acrylic paint, recycled paper).

Dimensions 10 inch x 8 inch.

2017

Consumer (not aware of prison slavery) with Officer and Inmate

Mixed media (photograph, recycled paper, paint)

Dimensions 10 inch x 8 inch

2017

Child Thinking About Discrimination and a History of Misconduct

My work is depicting the cover-up in the McDonald case. "The department stated at the outset that Mr. McDonald had been killed while approaching officers with a knife. But months later, a police video shows that the teenager was veering away from the officers, when one of them, Jason Van Dyke, shot him 16 times".

I Will Hire Prison Labor (to get rich)

Mixed media (photograph, recycled paper, acrylic paint) 2017

Several states have programs where prisons have contracts with private companies. These companies pay much less for prison labor than they would for free market labor.

For this forced labor, prisoners get paid little to nothing at all.

This is a situation of exploitation, where one person is enslaved for the benefit of another.

Private companies have pushed for a broader definition of crime. As a result there are more people imprisoned in America than ever before.

Many more people of color are incarcerated because law enforcement tend to target them. They are more likely to being searched and sent to prison than white people, and they tend to serve longer prison sentences.

Prison labor is the new American slavery and most of us support it without being aware of it, by buying products made by prisoners.

Every American should know about the existence of slavery.

The 13th Amendment banned slavery, but with one exception: penal servitude.

This punishment clause (from an Ordinance of 1787) was written in a language that was ambiguous enough to be abused, and it’s being used to legalize slavery.

It calls into question the value, dignity and equality of the 7 million Americans that have been incarcerated.

Breaking the law doesn’t make a person less of a human being and they should not be treated as if they were.